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Jon Peddie

I have been running Jon Peddie Research, a technical marketing research firm specializing in computer graphics, since 2001. Prior to that, I ran Jon Peddie Associates, since 1985.

2. What was your first job?

I installed closed circuit TVs for Jerrold Electronics in Philadelphia.

3. Where did you complete your formal education?

Columbia Pacific

4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?

I think it was 1978, but officially as a member, 1981.

5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?

Gee, 25 Siggraphs – which one? I know it’s probably a stupid answer, but I have enjoyed everyone – except I hated the hot Dallas and Las Vegas ones, oy.

6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.

My first CG project was a large flat-bed lofting plotter in 1962 – it was 10 or 12 ft long and at 6 ft wide and we could position a camera reticle to within 0.0005 inches – repeatedly. We used a ten dollar bill to prove – I kept the $10 thereby qualifying me to become a consultant.

7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?

Geez – only one? I just finished a book on the history of 3D in computers and got to write about and correspond with a lot of my friends in the industry, and do research on several who are no longer with us—I want to have dinner and a lot of wine with all of them.

8. What is something most people don’t know about you?

I invented the digital planimeter, and scalable bi-directional counters, and developed a laser altimeter that could measure 6-inches differences from an airplane at 12,000 ft.

9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?